Grrrr. No ginger for my bath! Well, just the scrapings from the jar, maybe 1T. Massive hunt through the pantry yielded nothing but the realization that I must not have bought it, after all. Double grrr. I hate it when it is MY fault.

Made corned beef hash for Eldest. Smelled divine, but I was able not to taste. Had to wrap up the smoked oysters left out, though, as their smell was VERY tempting.

Thanks for the good wishes, All. My plan to walk was foiled, but I am going to have a nice, though gingerless, detox bath.

Fast update

Made it through day two pretty well. A few desires for food, brought on by good smells, but nothing major. Yesterday my period started, and to make up for being so late, the cramps have been VERY intense. It may be pushing any idea of hunger out of my awareness. It did make me start thinking, though...

Could women have a natural time to fast, coinciding with their menstrual flow? After all, this is a time when our body is getting rid of something it no longer needs. Fits right in with my autophagy motivation. As I was pondering this, I considered maybe making my period into a time to fast.

Two objections immediately raised their heads. First, I wouldn't be able to plan when I would do my fast, but would have to wait for my body to announce its intentions. Oh, no! Loss of control! Aughhh!!

Second, my period sometimes stretches out over a week. Umm, not interested in fasting that long.

First sub-objection: a week!

Second sub-objection: I believe from my reading on autophagy, the best results come in the 2-3 day period(I stretch this to 3-4 day period, believing that for the first day and a half I am surely living on my glycogen), and then there is a dip until after the 8-9th day. All this is off the top of my head, I would have to go back and look at, you know, science, to get the numbers right, and I believe we all know me well enough to know that's not going to happen in the context of this post. So a week may not be worth it for me, unless I were willing to hang on for a few more days after THAT. Which I am not!

Sure, I might lose some weight, which is also nice, but as my main desire at this point in my life, is for autophagy, it is not really driving me as much as one might expect, given how relatively easy the fasting has been. Certainly easier than 'dieting'. I DO see the appeal of the 'nothing' portion of 'all or nothing'. Very pure.

But again, that's not me.

So all this is just thinking. Maybe someday I'll be at the point where I'll say, 'A 7-day fast? Sure!'. Not now.

I ordered the Sauce book from my local Barnes and Noble, and am going to pick it up tomorrow. I'll peruse it for a day or two, making my choices, and once I am back on solid food, start sampling. Pretty sure all I have to do is follow in Siobhan's tracks to have a tasty time.

I use a Vidal Sassoon brush(I know, FANCY!). I have no idea of style number, or what not, as I bought it years ago. The bristles are stiff, but not sharp, and what I consider as just slightly too floppy for hair brushing(I have coarse texture hair). The feel is just one half step down in intensity from a vigorous back scratch. That's about the best description I can give. I have no idea as to a link. Sorry.

(I hope I won't repel anyone with my disgusting habits, but when I was looking for a skin brush, I sneakily tested them out on the back of my hand to find the right texture. I didn't want to have ten brushes all too soft or firm. It did take a while to find one that was 'just right'. Keep looking. Don't despair.)

Made it through another day

I was hungry in the afternoon and evening, but powered through. I did consider breaking my fast today. No hunger so far this morning. I'll see what I feel like when I DO get hungry. It is much more tempting to eat at the end of the day than the beginning.

We had a nice bon voyage dinner for Eldest last night as he is leaving today. Chicken enchiladas, with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole, and a strawberry/cream cheese thing I made. I enjoyed the smells and colors without feeling like I MUST eat some, even though I was a little hungry at the time.

It is strange about the hunger. You would think that in my third day of not eating, if I got hungry, I would be HUNGRY. But it really wasn't an all-consuming thing. Just kind of annoying. My habits made me want to eat, but my hunger wasn't DRIVING me, the way people imagine it must be, when you haven't eaten for a long time. Humans are really tougher than we give ourselves credit for being.

Looks like I will make it through the full four days. It was just not convenient to eat this evening, what with seeing Eldest off at the bus station, so although there was a little hunger, I am not going to indulge. But tomorrow...!

I'm planning a little scrambled egg in the morning, and then a sashimi feast!

Chloe got into some chocolate last night, and has thrown up a couple times today. She has never gone hunting for things before (got it from Middlest's room). I can't help but think that Chica has turned her to the dark side. Hopefully she will be back to normal tomorrow. She was still very peppy on her walk, so I think she will be fine. But chocolate can be dangerous for dogs, so I was NOT pleased.

Bought the Sauce book this morning. (And a couple of others. Oh, bookstores, you are too tempting!) I'm going to work my way through it, roughly front-to-back, reserving the right to jump ahead to make, barbeque sauce, for example, if we are having barbeque. And I want to whip up some of the basics- ketchup, mustard, relish, horseradish -to have on hand.

Well done Sabine! You have done really well with your fast, proud of you indeed. Funny - I used to fast regularly and sometimes for a decent period of time but haven't done more than IF for the longest time. Chocolate can be scarey with dogs - hopefully yours are ok. (It is especially bad in small dogs)

DH got me the sauce book too and I have been having a lot of fun reading it and planning which bits and pieces to use. Let us know which ones you try and how they turn out...